Report: Profits rise for health insurance giants

Posted Feb. 18, 2010 at 10:25 a.m.

By Bruce Japsen
| Large U.S. health insurers did well last year, even though they faced higher medical costs and lost customers who had become unemployed. A report issued this morning from Moody’s Investors Service said the insurers’ profits jumped last year “above 2008’s levels.”

Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp, Humana, Inc. and Wellpoint “companies continued to demonstrate strong liquidity, while reducing financial leverage,” Moody’s said.


“Although the amount of outstanding debt did not change substantially
during the year, there was significant improvement in financial leverage
ratios at all five companies as retained earnings grew,” said Moody’s
senior vice president Steven Zaharuk in a statement. “We see this trend continuing during 2010, with little or no net increase in debt levels.”

Still,
the New York-based financial ratings firm said it’s unclear what impact
health reform could have on the profits of the major U.S. health
insurers. All four insurers mentioned are publicly-traded firms with
hundreds of thousands of customers in the Chicago area.

 

4 comments:

  1. Wolfgang Feb. 18, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    Duh! Big surprise. These are the companies that nickel-dime their policy holders, deny claims as a matter of business practice (essentially defying their insureds to challenge the denial) yet whine and squeal like stuck pigs about how they can’t make a profit under proposed health care reform. They get away with it because with our system of lobbying we have the finest government that corporate bribers can buy.

  2. Jennifer Feb. 19, 2010 at 9:34 a.m.

    as a healthcare professional i am appauled at the increasing denials on claims that we are getting specifically from humana….who also recently has denied conservative treatment for a patient and specifically stated they would only cover the treatment “if the skin was cut”….something hugely wrong with that!

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